With recent development of Internet-related technologies, the act of accessing a network server from a client device, such as a personal computer, to obtain color image data for display has become exceptionally common. Moreover, with diversification of client devices, a network server can be accessed even from mobile phones, or the like, so that image data is now often displayed using a portable phone equipped with color-image displayable liquid crystal display.
However, where a variety of types of image displaying devices of personal computers are available, displayable color ranges of so-called “full-color display” devices may vary depending on types. Moreover, it is often difficult for EL elements and LCDs, which are often used for portable terminal such as a mobile phone, to faithfully reproduce colors of image data stored in a network server because their color ranges are different from those of CRTs. This difference in color ranges is attributed to relationship between brightness data value of respective primary colors (i.e., red (R), green (G), and blue (B) for direct light) read from image data and brightness of pixels actually lighting on a screen, brightness balance among respective primary colors, and so forth.
Meanwhile, trading in and of various items without actually seeing the items themselves has come to be widely conducted using networks and recording media, including CD-ROM. However, such trading, which is based on images of items displayed on an electronic display device after being obtained via a network or a CD-ROM and so forth, accompanies a problem that a viewer may have different impressions of item colors as depending on the display device in use because of the diversity of display devices, as described above.
Moreover, although colors of image data may be faithfully reproduced under certain conditions, the object of the image data may give different impression when viewed under different conditions. This is attributed to differences in color temperature under different light sources, for example, differences between sunlight and fluorescent light. Specifically, impression of an object which is recognized by a viewer when the light from a light source is reflected on an object and imaged in the viewer's neuron system, may be remarkably different depending on the color temperature of the light source.
In view of the above, the present invention aims to provide an image processing device capable of displaying image data in colors closer to their original colors defined by image data in an electronic display device.
The present invention also aims to provide an image processing device capable of simulating how an object of image data to be displayed in an electronic display device will look, or the appearance of an object of image data, when viewed under a specific condition.